DOJ Sues More States Over Access to Voter Registration Lists (3)

The US Department of Justice sued six states for refusing to turn over access to the voter registration lists, saying the action violates election laws.

Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington failed to produce their full statewide lists upon requests, DOJ said in a press release Tuesday.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is allowed by Congress to enforce the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, which are designed to “ensure that states have proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs,” the press release said.

And under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 Bondi can “demand the production, inspection, and analysis of the statewide voter registration lists.”

“This lawsuit is just the latest example of the weaponization of the Department of Justice to further the Trump Administration’s unlawful whims,” said Rhode Island’s attorney general office in an email. “We stand with and will defend the Secretary, and win, because lawsuits concerning lawful conduct are largely unsuccessful. But I’m not surprised that this Administration is confused about what it means to behave lawfully.”

Noting it can’t speak to the suits’ entirety, New Mexico’s secretary of state office said it “has already provided the DOJ with publicly available voter data, but we are legally prevented from providing them with personal private voter information. New Mexico state law requires the protection of personal private voter data.”

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs rejected US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon for Washington’s complete statewide voter registration list in September, citing state privacy laws that Hobbs said prohibit releasing that information even to federal officials, one of the suits alleged.

DOJ sought a court order requiring Hobbs to provide the electronic voter list, including registrants’ names, addresses, birth dates and either driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers.

The department has sued multiple other states—including California, Pennsylvania, and Michigan—saying state officials similarly violated the federal law by failing to hand over their statewide voter registration lists.

A hearing in California’s is scheduled for Thursday. Its attorney general fired back against DOJ’s expanded request in that case Tuesday, saying it might fail to comply with not only local rules but institute incessant delays.

Hobbs’ office and offices of the attorneys general for three other states didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The case is United States v. Sec’y of State of Wash., W.D. Wash., No. 3:25-cv-06078, complaint filed 12/2/25.